The Influence of Violent Video Games on Youngsters - Case Study Example

The Influence of Violent Video Games on Youngsters Games are part of the fabric of everyday life of youngsters that comesabout whenever an individual, two or more people gather for any reason. This can be at home, school, college, stadium sporting events among other places. The making and playing of games has just been as natural eating or walking, and every one participated until a clear distinction arose to cut the society into two that is the game players and spectators. Games have always been used as sources of entertainment for both the old and young ones. And it is worth noting that no one is born knowing certain principles of a given game, but it is through learning that can be done in class under an instructor or through observation, then trying to put whatever is learnt into practice. Discussion A good example is the video games that its history goes way back in 1950s, during time when academicians began designing simulations, simple games as well as artificially intelligence programs that were part of their computer research. These video games were introduced to the general public, and since then video gaming become a fashionable form of leisure activity among the youngsters in the modern culture (Ravitch and Joseph 15). Many young people across the globe, playing games on a computer or video game console have become a routine. Most of the gaming has become an addiction and they can never do away with it at the expense of their personal goals in life. All along the strident call for all parents, nations is basically been centered on physical, emotional and social wellbeing of their children. But this has not been achieved yet. Virtually since the dawn of computer technology, many people have wanted to understand the impact of violent video games particularly on children. The big concern has been the portrayal of violence among the youth after playing or watching violent games and what could definitely lead to that. It is therefore important to outline the three main issues that concerns that might raise eyebrows after closely engaging in the violent movies are; most of them may become less sensitive to the pain and suffering of others (Arif 15) .Children may be more fearful of the world around them. Children may be more likely to behave in aggressive or harmful ways toward others. Violent video games teach youngsters to apply aggressive solutions to conflict. Playing a violent video game appears to affect aggression by cheering a child to think violent thoughts. The player learns and practices new aggressive strategies and ways of thinking during the games.  As a result he or she becomes more likely to use these strategies when real-life conflicts arise. Many a times, the violent video games involve learning how to be more effective at destroying the opponent.  This makes video games potentially more dangerous than exposure to violent television and movies, which are known to have significant effects on aggression and violence. Children learn both good and bad behavior from watching the video games, and therefore it does not mean that all children will only develop the bad habits as a result of watching or playing the video games. The most extensively accredited positive impact is that video games may help children improve their manual agility and computer literacy. Improving technology also provides players with improved graphics that provide a more realistic useful playing understanding. It worth acknowledging that there are many emerging video games that takes an intellectual point of view(LAbate 123). An example is the puzzle games such as the wildly popular Tetris. These types of games stimulate the mind by presenting challenges and puzzles to the player rather than enemies and worlds. Most of these video games can be used just to keep the mind active and alert. This type of game-play has brought about the idea that video games can be used as a form of therapy. Some of them are relaxing and soothing, and they can be specifically altered to meet a patients needs. A video game can be created to help a specific type of person, whether it is to help join certain memory cells in the brain, or just help stimulate brain activity in general. Due to the programmatic nature in which video games are created, their possibilities of creation are endless. Video games can successfully be used as a form of psychotherapy in children. This success has stimulated much research on this issue, but mostly dealing with mentally-ill or brain-damaged patients. However, research has it that majority of these movies contain some type of violent content. The pro-social video games, TV shows that are used to bring out the cooperativeness of an individual, the spirit of helping and caring for others positively influences the behavior of the child as opposed to the anti-social video games that only promotes violent. Therefore, the content of the video games youths play, determines their impact on real world behavior. Playing violent video games can increase aggressive thoughts, mind-set and behavior in real life.  Violent video games may be more harmful than violent television and movies because they are interactive and interesting, and they sometimes even require that the person playing identify with the antagonist. Apart from other sources of entertainment, video games are entirely unique because they usually tend to persuade the players to become a part of the game script. For more decades, video games have been available in the public for general view, but it is worth noting that today’s complicated video games oblige player to pay more attention to the game. As opposed to other sources of entertainment, video games require the players to get themselves occupied on deeper level emotionally and physically. Many youths between the ages of 8 to 18 spend almost seven-and-a half time of their day on the entertainment media and probably the violent video games carries the day. The increase in aggressive behavior is associated to the amount of time children are permitted to play video games—and daily media use by their parents. Many of the introvert youngsters who actually find it very hard to interact with people in the real world, video games comes to their rescue by simply offering away to be able to interact with others in their practical world without any challenge (MacCall 98). The massive multi-online role-playing games do usually enables players to behave differently from their common personality. This is the time when the youths are encouraged to identify themselves with their favorite characters, put on their shoes and emulate the roles up to a point where they are able to master them for them to successfully win in the game, and this is through engaging directly in the act of violence. If you one does practice again and again, that knowledge remains in his/her head for a long period of time. Ivan Pavlov (1848-1936), a Russian biologist carried out an experiment on a dog that learned to associate the bell with food. Each time the bell was rang; the dog salivated even if no food was present. He therefore concluded that animals as well as human beings’ reflexes could be changed, or conditioned through training. The fact that you haven’t played football for years doesn’t imply you can’t still get into the pitch play even if not to perfection. And this is the same with violent games that the youngsters engage in the better part of the day – you practice being vigilant for enemies, practice thinking that it’s acceptable to respond uncompromisingly to aggravation, and practice becoming unreasonable to the consequences of violence. Playing violent video games may increase aggressive behavior because violent acts are frequently repeated all through the video game. This process of repetition has long been considered an efficient teaching method in reinforcing learning patterns. Studies show that, controlling for previous violent behavior, children who played more violent video games during the commencement of the school year showed more aggression than other children later in the school year. Violent video games have greater negative influence on the young people’s personality, attitude and generally how they carry themselves in the society. Violent video games are associated with higher levels of aggressive behavior, aggressive affect and physiological arousal as well as a decrease in pro-social behavior. While video games remain a somewhat new media source, the aggression patterns among youth that play video games mirrors the aggression patterns among youth that watch violent television and movies (MacCall 111).  Sometimes it is even easy to see aggressive behavior in the players shortly after playing the game, as well as in the long term with regular, ongoing game play. And as a result, the longer the duration an individual is exposed to the violent video games, the more likely his or her behavior would become violent, both physically and behaviorally. Numerous preceding studies have shown that, on average, boys play more violent video games than girls, but when girls play the same amount they exhibit the same amount of violent behavior-both immediately after playing and in the long term. Those youths who play the violent games more frequently always portray negative impact on their social and school lives are more likely to have violent behavior.  Male children who are reportedly playing violent games all the time have showed an increase in physical aggression, while on the other hand , the physical aggression among female children tend to be low because they usually play fewer violent games compared to the male children. Addictive violent game playing makes an individual learn the dirty patterns that will stick with them and influence their behaviors as they grow older. This effect is usually the same regardless of an individual’s social background, economic status, culture, age or even gender. With this regard, children will eventually start to think and behave more aggressively (LAbate 159). Their social life will automatically change as they will begin to react violently at school, stadiums, at home or in other related conditions whenever they are provoked, their reaction is simply going to be the same as how they do when playing the violent games. At this point their thinking is controlled and driven by the long-term outcome of violent games on aggression. . There is a negative correlation between video game playing and violent behavior. Socioeconomic status of an individual’s family or nation may explain both a decline in violent behavior and an increase in video game playing. Most prosperous youths in the society have the means and time to buy and play video games, which keeps them safely inside while avoiding potentially violent interactions on the street. Violent video games may increase precursors to violent behavior, such as bullying in learning places as well as homes. However, even though playing violent video games may not necessarily determine violent or aggressive behavior, it may increase precursors to violent behavior (Saltmarsh 42).  In fact, they may be related to bullying, which have been found to be a risk factor for more serious violent behavior. Therefore, it is worth noting that video game playing may have an indirect effect on violent behavior by increasing risk factors for it.  The only way for violent video games to affect serious criminal violence statistics is if they were the primary predictor of crime, which they may not be.  Violent video game playing may be alike to other public health threats such as exposure to drug and led based paint.  Despite not being definite, the likelihood of lung cancer from smoking or brainpower deficits from lead exposure is increased.  However, we have laws controlling cigarette sales to minors and the use of lead-based paint because it is a risk factor for negative health outcomes. In the same way there should be laws that regulate the consumption of game videos in all nations. Although exposure to violent video games is not the sole factor contributing to aggression and violence among children and adolescents, it is a contributing risk factor that is modifiable. Once the bad behaviors have been learnt, it is completely a difficult task eliminating them from your childs life. However, as parents or nations it can of great impact when precautions are taken to decrease the negative impact that they have on your child. Adults should be obliged to know the rating of the video games your child plays based on the age, maturity among other things. Parents should at no cost install video game equipment in the vicinity of their children, and if all the children got access prior, they should often set limits on how often and how long their children should take while playing video (Macedo and Shirley 674). It is the duty of parents to take their dear time to discuss with your children the games they are playing or other media they are watching. They should be very ready to ask their children how they feel about what they observe in these video games, television programs or movies. This is the better opportunity to share your feelings and grow closer with your child. After doing all these, it is very important to share with other parents’ information about certain games or ideas for helping each other in parenting. Conclusion In a nutshell, it is through research in the past decade has greatly helped our understanding of its effects on development of and enhancement of certain behaviors among youngsters.. The video game industry has grown to the size of the movie industry, and will continue to grow. With each generation of games come more realistic graphics, more violence, bigger world, and more possibilities. In order to fully control the effect that it has on our children, we must first better understand the effect it has on the individuality and behaviors, and not just in the areas of aggression and hostility. Through our understanding, it is important for game developers to create games which will help our youth, expand their minds, and shy away from the current trend of violence in video games. Works Cited Arif, Amna. Influence of Electronic Media in Escalating Aggressive Behaviour in Children. S.l.: Anchor Academic Publishin, 2013. Print. LAbate, Luciano. The Seven Sources of Pleasure in Life: Making Way for the Upside in the Midst of Modern Demands. Santa Barbara, Calif: Praeger, 2011. Print. MacCall, Jeffrey. Viewer Discretion Advised: Taking Control of Mass Media Influences. Lanham, MD [etc.: Rowman & Littlefield, 2007. Print. Macedo, Donaldo, and Shirley R. Steinberg. Media Literacy: A Reader. New York, N.Y: Peter Lang, 2007. Print. Ravitch, Diane, and Joseph P. Viteritti. Kid Stuff: Marketing Sex and Violence to Americas Children. Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003. Print. Saltmarsh, Sue. Rethinking School Violence: Theory, Gender, Context. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012. Print. Read More